


Deep Breaths

by TheStrayOne



Series: Our Maknae [4]
Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Choi Jongho-centric, Fever, Hurt/Comfort, Medical Inaccuracies, Not Beta Read, Platonic Relationships, Pneumonia, Sick Character, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:56:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27666442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheStrayOne/pseuds/TheStrayOne
Summary: Jongho hated being burden and, really, it was only a cold
Relationships: Choi Jongho & Everyone
Series: Our Maknae [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1110282
Comments: 1
Kudos: 109





	Deep Breaths

Catching a cold sucked.

Catching a cold and subsequently spreading it to the entire dorm was even worse.

Jongho felt awful. 

He knew that he couldn’t really help catching a cold, but he also knew he should’ve been more careful.It’s not the first outbreak they’d had in the dorm.There was the time San caught the stomach flu and spread it to half of them.Then there was the time Seonghwa got pink eye.There were also several smaller cases of them passing around mild colds, just like this one, so you’d think they’d have learned from past mistakes. 

However, here they were, all dealing with sore throats, stuffy noses, headaches, and mild fevers. 

None of them were bad enough to warrant canceling their entire schedules, but they were being given a bit more free time.Scheduled VLives and variety show appearances were still happening.Dance practices were still happening too, though they were shortened significantly.However, the songs that they were supposed to have recorded that week were going to have to be pushed back due to the fact that their voices weren’t quite up to par. 

It was going to be putting them way behind schedule depending on how long it took for the mini epidemic passed.

Jongho knew that he should’ve distanced himself from the members when he first started showing symptoms, but he didn’t.He knew he should’ve made sure he was washing his hands often and making sure his hyungs did the same.He should’ve reminded them all that if they got too close they might get sick.

But he didn’t and now, because of his own irresponsibility, they all had to deal with the consequences. 

Jongho was at least grateful that, by the time the cold had spread, he was feeling well enough to help take care of the rest of the members.He spent most of his time at the dorm making soups and teas to help with sore throats and delivering tissue boxes as needed to the rest of the members.If he wasn’t doing either of those he was listening to the other members complain about being sick and jokingly blame him for being sick and making them get behind.

It didn’t do anything to make him feel better for getting them all sick, but he knew that they were joking.He kept reminding himself of that.They weren’t really upset.

It ended up being another two weeks before they were deemed well enough to record.Two weeks behind.Two weeks that they would have to spend super late nights and far too early mornings making up. 

He tried to tell himself that it wasn’t that big of a deal.He tried to tell himself that everyone probably would’ve gotten sick anyway. 

But everyone else kept complaining about lost time and he couldn’t help but feel as though he’d just messed everything up.

* * *

Jongho couldn’t believe this was happening. 

He had a cold, again, and this time worse than before.It wasn’t exactly uncommon for someone reinfect another member, but was still annoying. 

Not only that but it could cause, yet another, outbreak in the dorm and none of them were ready to be put even further behind.They were already struggling with the extended schedules.

He’d woken up in the middle of the night because of a slight cough and hadn’t thought much of it, but, as soon as he woke up, he knew he was in for a rough couple of days.

“Wooyoung hyung, you and Yeosang hyung may want to move into another room for a couple of days.” 

Wooyoung, who had been laying on his bed scrolling through his phone, looked up, brows furrowed.“Why?”All it took was a strangely well timed cough for him to understand.“Again, seriously!”

Jongho just nodded, raising his elbow to cover another wet cough.His chest feels tight and he knows that the day is going to be long. 

“I’m going to grab a thermometer and let Hongjoong hyung know you’re sick again.”Wooyoung sighed.“How did you manage to get sick twice, seriously,” he mumbled as he left. 

Jongho wished he had an answer.He already felt bad enough about getting them as behind as they were.Now he was possibly going to waste even more time.

He got up and got dressed.He didn’t feel bad enough to miss out on schedules and he knew the company wouldn’t be happy about him missing more time.Just as he finished slipping on a t-shirt, Hongjoong walked in. 

“Wooyoungie says you’re sick again?” 

Jongho nodded.

“Aish.You just can’t catch a break.” He set a thermometer on the desk by the door.“Take your temperature and let me know what it is okay?I don’t want to get to close just in case.Wooyoung and Yeosang are going to sleep in the living room until you get better.We can’t afford another outbreak.”

He didn’t need Hongjoong to remind him but he nodded anyway.The older man gave him a sympathetic smile before leaving, presumably to get ready for the day. 

Jongho slipped the thermometer under his tongue and waited for the beep.100 on the dot.It was probably a little higher than what the company would be comfortable with, but, considering the time crunch, he doubted they’ll actually pull him from all of their schedules. 

He was proven mostly right after he told Hongjoong and he contacted their managers.He was quickly pulled from public events, but he was still asked to come in to try and finish recording.He was also still told to go to at least and hour of their dance practice though he didn’t actually have to dance for all of it. 

He knew he probably wouldn’t be considered well enough to finish recording when he got there and it somehow made his already overwhelming guilt worse.Being behind meant a lot of stress for everyone and he didn’t want to be the cause of that. 

In the end, he only ended up staying at the company for about an hour and a half before he was sent home.His cough was making his sore throat even worse and the phlegm he kept coughing up made it too difficult to breathe for dance practice. 

He was pretty sure things couldn’t get much worse.

* * *

Jongho had decided to quarantine himself in the dorm.It was the best possible way to keep everyone from getting sick.Besides, he hated seeing the rest of the members tired faces when they came back from late schedules. 

He only left his room for water, to use the bathroom, and to shower.He didn’t really feel up to eating, so he didn’t ever join the others for meals, though Seonghwa always brought him broth or soup when he got home. 

Other than that, he did what he could to just push through the symptoms. 

It had been four days since he’d gotten sick again and he knew his fever had gotten worse.The coughing had also gotten significantly worse and his chest was starting to hurt because of it.It made breathing painful.He was also starting to get nauseous, which was putting him off food even more so than before. 

He tried not let the rest of the members see that it was getting worse.He wasn’t going to stress them out more by making them worry about him.A common cold couldn’t be cured after all, and he didn’t want them to worry about things they couldn’t fix.They were already having to pick up the slack from him not being there since the company told him to stay home until he was fully recovered.

It was getting hard though.He was starting to feel extremely bad.He’d had bad colds in the past but this was starting to surpass those.It was annoying, especially considering it meant he couldn’t get back to work sooner. 

He just wanted to be able to catch back up so they could all relax again.

* * *

It had been six days, and work was the last thing on Jongho’s mind anymore. 

It had been steadily getting worse since he’d first gotten sick but it had suddenly got so so much worse a few hours before.It was 3:00 a.m. and he couldn’t sleep because he couldn’t stop coughing.Every breath was a struggle and it hurt so so much.His lungs gurgled with every breath and he felt like he couldn’t get enough air. 

He knew he needed to get up and get someone but he just felt so weak.He didn’t feel like he could move because he was so tired. 

He coughed into a tissue for what had to be the millionth time that night and was about to throw it away when he noticed something.A dark patch. 

It was hard to tell what it was in the dark so he flipped on the lamp next to his bed. 

He looked back at the tissue and froze for a second. 

Among the slimy, yellow-green phlegm was a dark red patch.Blood.He was coughing up blood. 

He was fairly certain that, whatever he had wasn’t a cold. 

He needed to get help, he knew that, but it was much easier said than done.He was so tired and his legs felt like jelly.Coughs racked his body every few seconds and he really just wanted to lay down. 

Instead, though, he forced himself up and out of bed and started towards his bedroom door.However, he only made it about three steps before nausea started to overwhelm him.He felt dizzy and, dear god, his chest hurt. He made it two more steps before falling to the ground, attempting to grab the desk to catch him. 

Instead, he took half of it’s contents down with him.He couldn’t be bothered by it too much because he had a much more present problem.The nausea had gotten worse, and he scrambled for the little trashcan in their room before throwing up the water and broth he’d drank earlier. 

A few seconds later, the door to his room swung open.“Jongho!Jongho what’s going on?”

He raised his head up from the trash can, sucking in a desperate, wheezy breath.Yeosang was looking down at him with wide eyes.His lungs made a cracking, gurgling sound that put him even more on edge. 

“Hongjoong, Seonghwa!Get in here!”Yeosang moved to his side, placing a hand on his forehead.“Jongho-yah, you’re burning up.Can you tell me what’s wrong?”

He sucked in another short breath.“Chest, hu’ts.Can’t b’eath.Nauseous.Cold”He had to breath in between each word.It hurt so much.

The rapid pounding of footsteps filled the room.He couldn’t be bothered by it though.He was too focused on getting in enough air to keep himself awake. 

“What’s going on?”He knew that was Hongjoong, but he was pretty sure that there were more people there.

“He says he can’t breath, his chest hurts, and that he’s nauseous.He’s burning up too.He needs to go to the hospital.”

There was a hand on his head.It was cold and he shivered.A few seconds later, there were fingers on his neck.“Aish, his heart’s racing.Mingi-yah, call an ambulance!”Then there were hands on his face, turning it.Seongwha’s face flooded his vision.“Jongho-yah.I need you to keep looking at me okay?Can you tell me when this started happening?”

He coughed harshly.“Started gettin’ bad a few hours ago.”It took him longer than it should have to get the words out. 

Seonghwa’s lips tightened.“Do you know when you started having difficulty breathing?”

He shrugged, taking in short, desperate gasps.“A day ‘r two ago?”

“Okay,” Seonghwa took in a deep breath.“Okay, just keep breathing okay.Just focus on that.Help’s on the way.You’re going to be okay.” 

Someone had moved to sit behind him, and was rubbing a hand through his hair.It would normally have been comforting but he could barely focus on anything other than trying to breath.Every time he tried to suck in a breath, it aggravated his already aching chest.If he wasn’t trying the breath, he was coughing up mucous that someone was quickly wiping away with a tissue. 

He was thankful.He didn’t have the energy to do it himself. 

The events that followed happened to quickly for him to keep track of. 

Paramedics showed up and he was loaded onto a gurney.People were asking him questions that he couldn’t get himself to answer.He was pretty sure Hongjoong was talking to him, but he couldn’t be sure.Then he was being loaded into an ambulance with too bright lights. 

He closed his eyes because the lights hurt and before he could really stop himself, he fell asleep.

* * *

The first thing he noticed when he woke up was that he was not in his room.The second thing he noticed was that there was some sort of mask over his face.The third thing he noticed was that he was not alone. 

“Hey, nice of you to finally join the land of the living.”Hongjoong’s tone was fairly easy going, but his eyes betrayed him.His brows were furrowed and he looked tired.Jongho reached up to take off the mask to answer but was stopped.“Hey, no moving that.Your lungs got messed up pretty bad and it’s helping you breathe.You should be able to talk with it if you want.”

He tried to think back to what happened, but everything was hazy.“Wha’ happened?”

“Well, you went on and got pneumonia.Apparently that can sometimes happen after you catch a cold.And then, because you didn’t receive treatment for so long, you got a bunch of fluid around your lungs which is causing some issues.If it had gotten much worse you would’ve had to have gotten surgery.” 

Oh.He didn’t think that it was that bad.Maybe he should’ve realized that whatever he had was worse than a cold earlier on, but he didn’t think it was that big of a deal. 

Hongjoong sighed and moved to sit on the edge of his bed.“Why didn’t you tell us things were getting so bad huh?”He gently grabbed Jongho’s hand has he spoke, rubbing his thumb over his knuckles. 

He shrugged.“Didn’t think i’ was tha’ bad.”

Hongjoong’s eyebrows raised.“Seriously!”His voice was raised, but still gentle.“You could barely breath when Yeosangie found you that night.There was blood mixed with your mucous.How did you not know it was getting bad.”

Jongho coughed harshly.“I thought it was jus’ a bad cold n’ you can’t really do anythin’ for a cold.Jus’ tried to deal with it.”

Hongjoong pursed his lips.“Okay, but even if you thought it was a cold, you should’ve told us it was getting worse.You should’ve at least told us you were having difficulty breathing.Then even if you didn’t think it was anything serious we could’ve seen some of the signs.”His voice was still harsh but there was a air of strictness to it.Like a parent scolding a child. 

It would’ve been an understatement to say that Jongho felt guilty at that point.After spreading a cold around to the entire dorm and now worrying them and putting them god knows how much further behind, he felt awful.He didn’t even want to begin thinking about the time he would have to take to recover either.“Sorry, hyung.”

“Don’t apologize okay?You can’t help getting sick but don’t let things go to far if something like this ever happens again.This could’ve been much much worse if Yeosang hadn’t heard you fall that night.”Hongjoong sighed again and reached up to ruffle his hair.“You should probably get some rest; you look tired.I need to go let everyone else know you woke up anyway.”

“Wait.”Jongho coughed, but continued once he saw Hongjoong looking back at him.“How’s ever’one else?”

“Hmm?They’re all fine.Worried but fine.Pneumonia is contagious but we should all be okay.No one else is showing symptoms and we cleaned your room really well.We’ll have to be careful around you but other than that we shouldn’t have any issues.”

“‘Nd how long will I have t’ be here?”

“You’ll probably have to stay in the hospital for a couple more days and then they’ll probably send you home on oxygen.After that I really don’t know.You’ll probably be out for awhile but don’t worry about it too much, okay?The company’s already made a statement explaining the situation.No one’s going to be mad at you for needing time to recover.” 

Jongho knew they wouldn’t be mad at him, but he almost wished they would.He hated that he was causing so many problems, even if it wasn’t technically his fault.Perhaps if he had told them how bad he’d been feeling, he wouldn’t be out for as long as Hongjoong seemed to think he’d be. 

Hongjoong, however, seemed to read his mind.“Seriously, don’t feel guilty.This is the first time something like this has ever happened.Now we know that we need to be more careful and attentive next time someone gets sick.”

Jongho nodded.It would probably be awhile before his brain got around to understanding that, but he didn’t feel like arguing.“Thanks hyun'.”

Hongjoong smiled.“No problem.Now, seriously, get some more rest.You need it.”

Jongho smiled back “M’kay.”

“Good.I’m gonna go let everyone know you woke up.They were worried.”

Hongjoong stood to leave once again, but Jongho called out again before he could stop himself.“C'n you stay? For jus' a little bit?”

Hongjoong gave an amused huff and sat back down.“Yeah.”

“Thanks again.”

“Don’t thank me.Now, seriously, go to sleep or I’ll have to get Seonghwa in here.”

“Okay.” 

Jongho closed his eyes, and though his chest still hurt, he felt like he could breath a little easier.

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm actually back and it's not a year later! Yay! 
> 
> I don't really write stories like this as often so I hope you liked it. 
> 
> I think I want to try updating this series every two weeks. I don't know when I'll get back into chaptered stories and I don't know if I'll keep updating this series this frequently when I do, but for now this is my plan. I have a couple oneshots lined up and I've written the beginnings of a few. 
> 
> I'd still like to hear any suggestions for maknae centric stories but I can't make any guarantees. I think I'm going to post a list of groups I'm willing to post for and my schedule. I may have posted it already, I don't know. I'd prefer if suggestions were platonic focused and I don't really write AUs but other than that I'm pretty open to anything.
> 
> Anyway, I'll try and have something up in two weeks. I'd love to hear your suggestions! Thanks for reading and I hope you all are doing well!


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